How Lanie found out - A missing scene from Probable Cause
by JustAWriterWannaBe
Summary: This story is a small vignette that I thought was missing from "Probable Cause." It takes place some time after Castle gets arrested and before Ryan tells Esposito "the secret."


**_Disclaimer:_  
**All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

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**_Author/Story Note:_  
**This story is a small vignette that I thought was missing from "Probable Causes."  
It takes place some time after Castle gets arrested and before Ryan tells Esposito "the secret." (Yes, I know it doesn't quite follow the real timeline, I just fudged it a little tiny bit.)  
It came about because of a conversation I had with Dmarx, an excellent writer who humored me with my comments about this story.  
Okay, I'm an idiot, I accidently deleted it and had to repost it.

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"Esposito, did CSU finish their report on Castle's loft?" Beckett asks.

"I don't have the report and no one's told me anything yet. Ryan, did you get it?"

"No, I've been working on the financials you asked me to get."

"Okay guys, I'm going to go see Lanie and then I'll go to the lab and see what they have for me. You two keep working here, we know this was a setup, we just have to find the smoking gun." Beckett says, grabbing her keys and jacket from her desk and heading to the elevator.

"Hey 'bro, think she's okay?" Esposito asks his partner quietly "She seems to be taking this a little harder than I would have thought."

Ryan pauses, knowing their secret, then tells Esposito "Yeah, you know Javi, everyone knows how they feel about each other. I'm sure she'll be okay we just have to get the evidence to clear him."

"I know Kev, I just worry."

"We all do 'bro, they both mean a lot to all of us. We'll get this sorted out." Ryan assures.

* * *

"Doctor Parish, here's the lab report you asked for." said the lab tech.

"Thank you! You guys did that fast. We all appreciate this." Lanie said.

"Thanks Doctor Parish, we all know what's riding on it, we all like Castle and everyone's doing their best work to get this cleared up. As for conclusions, so far, there's nothing special about what we've found."

"Tell everyone we said 'thank you' when you get back to the lab. I'm going to go sequester myself in my office to review this and try and sort through all the data."

"Will do. Thanks and good luck." the tech says as she's leaving.

Lanie heads into her office with the folder in her hand and her coffee. She closes her door just as Beckett gets to the CSU lab next to the morgue.

* * *

Beckett goes into the lab "Hi, I'm Detective Beckett, do you have the CSU report on the Castle apartment?"

"Sorry Detective, we just gave that to Doctor Parish, she's reviewing everything to make sure there's no possible mistakes."

Beckett turns to leave "That's great, thanks very much, I'll go talk to ..."

A high-pitched scream can be heard from the ME's office followed by "**OH MY GOD!**"

As Beckett hurries over to see what the commotion is more yelling can be heard "**OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!**" Lanie is yelling in her office as Beckett runs through the morgue and bursts into the ME's office.

"**What the hell's going on in here? What's wrong?**" Beckett demands.

"**You! OH MY GOD! Explain yourself dammit!**" Lanie says pointing to the CSU report and wiping herself where she spilled her coffee "**Katherine Beckett!**" Lanie yells "**This is a hell of a way for a friend to find out!**"

"Lanie, what? What are you talking about? What is wrong? What's the report say?" Beckett says hurrying over to see what she's pointing at.

As she gets to the side of the desk Lanie Parish reaches out and wraps her arms around Beckett and picks her up off the ground yelling "**This is FANTASTIC!**"

Now confused and more than a bit freaked out, Beckett holds Lanie's hands as she looks at the report "Oh NO! I never thought of that!" then with clear panic in her voice she quietly pleads "**Please t****ell me she's not working today!**" her face going ghost white and looking wide-eyed at Lanie.

"No honey, only me and one lab tech have seen this! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Lanie, I ... I ... don't know what to say. His laundry ... we never thought ..." Beckett trails off.

"Kate! Wake up! That's not what I mean! I don't like finding out that you two have finally gotten together by reading a DNA report about bed sheets found in his laundry! Why didn't you tell me?"

"I... I... um ... we... he... I..." Beckett stammers.

Lanie again, exuberant, reaches out, hugging her friend picking her up off the floor "**Congratulations! I'm so happy for you two!**"

"Lanie! Put me down!" Beckett protests "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I didn't tell you yet but we're ... I mean ... This is still very new to us too."

"I'd say so!" Lanie agrees "Look honey, I'm going to talk to the tech and ask that this part of the report gets held back until absolutely needed. Obviously we can't hide it but we'll try to keep it from coming out unless vital. We'll also try to make sure that Alexis doesn't see this."

"Lanie, thank you so very much, we'll talk later about all this of course but I need know if there's anything else that might point to his innocence or that someone set him up?"

"I've not found anything yet and the techs didn't say anything stood out about the test but then I didn't get past that report on the DNA match. If you'll give me about fifteen minutes to go over this again I'll see if there's anything else."

"That's great Lanie, I'm going to go back to my desk and see what has turned up there. If there's anything we can use, please call me right away ... and ... can we ... would you mind not telling anyone about this? We want to enjoy our anonymity for a while longer."

"Absolutely but just so you know, there's no chance of your not talking to me about this later!" Lanie reminders her as Kate heads out of the morgue.

* * *

On the way back to her office, Beckett decides to drop by the holding cells to check on Castle.

"Hey partner." she says startling him out of his thoughts.

"Hi, nice to see you." he says back trying to smile but not doing very well.

"I just thought I'd check in on you and see if you needed anything." she whispers, now right up against his face with only the cage between them.

"Thank you. Your smiling face is enough for now." as he puts his fingers on her's through the cage.

"I have some ... I guess unpleasant is the best word for it ... news for you." she says, still whispering,

"What's that?"

"Lanie knows."

"Oh, if that's all, that's fine. How did she take it when you told her?" he asks.

"I didn't tell her." she says staring at his face to see his reaction.

"But ... how ... when ... I ... how'd she find out?" he finally stammers out, looking very confused

"She read the CSU report about the DNA they got from the sheets in the laundry." she says in a whisper, still staring at him.

Very quietly, with almost no lip movement or breath he replies "oh"

"Yea, we never thought of that. Before you panic, she's going to do whatever she can to keep it out of circulation and she's going to make a point of not letting Alexis find the report." she says with a gentle smile "The bad news is that I now have an awful lot of explaining to do to her when all this is over. She was furious with me for not letting her know before this."

"Seems I'm going to owe your friends and coworkers a great deal when this is over." he says, barely able to understand how much their friendship means to everyone around them.

"Hey, they're your friends and coworkers too partner." she smiles "I have to go and get to my desk and work this case. As soon as I know something I'll let you know."

"Thank you Kate. Thank you for everything." the usual sparkle in his eyes almost gone.

"You're welcome Rick." she said squeezing his fingers "We'll solve this. Keep the faith."

"Always." he replies softly.

She turns to leave and hesitates pulling her fingers from his through the cage but finally does and heads to her desk.

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**# # # The End # # #**


End file.
